AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It all comes down to the last person you think of at night.
That’s where your heart is.”
-Anonymous
Warren
“Warren. A word.” My dad’s gruff voice pulls me out of a conversation with Jane, who’s arguing with me about where she’s sleeping tonight. I, of course, want her in my bed. But Jane being who she is, doesn’t want to sleep in the same bed with me at my parents’ home.
I sigh and look her in the eye. “We’re not done with this conversation.”
“Yes, we are,” she says easily and settles back into the couch.
My mom comes over with two mugs of something and hands one to Jane, settling into the couch beside her and they immediately launch into a conversation.
The rest of our group was staying at the lodge that Graham and some other friends I grew up with built up. I haven’t been out to see it yet, but from April’s gushing, I knew it was something I needed to see soon.
I follow my dad into his small office, glancing around at the tidy room. He has file cabinets against one wall and another with a map of the state, places pinned with notes and things, marking several construction zones that I’m sure he had crews on right now.
“What’s on your mind, Dad?” I ask, crossing my arms and leaning against one of the filing cabinets.
I look to one wall and see a picture of me and my father from when I was about fourteen, we’re at one of his finished homes and I’m wearing a hard hat in the picture. Both of us wear broad smiles. It was one of the last pictures of the two of us where we still got along with ease, not fighting about my future.
“I wanted to talk to you about the future.”
And there it is.
I refrain from sighing. I should have known this was coming. “What about it?”
He nods his head to the door and keeps my eyes. “You serious about that woman?”
He doesn’t ask it in a snarky or condescending voice, but with genuine curiosity. The tension in my shoulders eases some. “Yeah, I am.”
“Good.” He nods his head. “She seems like a real nice girl. She’s got a good head on her shoulders, CEO of a family-owned company. That’s big.” Here we go. “Maybe it has you thinking about your own family-owned company.”
“Not really, Dad,” I answer, uncrossing my arms to tuck my hands in my pockets. “I’m still serious about making my own stuff work.”
“And you’ve been working on that for years now, Warren. No offense to you because your art is good, Warren, I’ve never thought it wasn’t.” His comment surprises me, he’s never been very outspoken about my work, but then again, the only thing he’s ever been outspoken about is me taking over the family business. “But maybe it’s time to make that your hobby and not your career.”
I keep my voice calm and controlled as I say, “I don’t want to do what you do, Dad. And I am sorry about that, but I’m not going to change my mind.”
He sighs, deep and loud. “Warren, you need to think this through. How are you gonna support that woman, whatever future you two plan, without an income?”
Screw that.I scoff and smirk at him. “Maybe I was just gonna have her be my sugar mama.”
“Warren.” His warning tone doesn’t stop me.
“Or maybe I’d just be a stripper. Or maybe sell nudes of myself.”
“Okay, fine.” He throws up his hands at me.
“I don’t know what you want from me, Dad. I’ve been clear with you from the start that I don’t want to work in construction.”
“It’s an honest living. And a damn lucrative one at that.”
“I never said it wasn’t.”
“I’ve worked hard my whole life to build something that could be yours one day, that could keep you and your mom safe and taken care of.”
